BMW has awarded a contract worth just over a billion euros ($1.16 billion) to China’s lithium battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd (CATL), the German carmaker has said.
The deal will allow China’s biggest lithium battery maker to build a factory to produce cells for electric cars in Europe, BMW spokesman Glenn Schmidt said on Thursday.
CATL is banking on a state-led Chinese drive to curb pollution from traditional combustion engines and increase the country’s presence in the overseas new energy vehicle (NEV) market.
CATL is scouting potential locations for a battery production facility in Europe with the German state of Thuringia encouraging the Chinese manufacturer to use a site near Erfurt, in eastern Germany, according to a Reuters report.
Last month, Daimler placed an order with CATL to buy electric car battery cells.
CATL did not respond to requests for comment on Friday.
CATL made its debut on the Shenzhen stock exchange earlier this month and aims to use the proceeds to finance its 24 gigawatt-hour (GWh) capacity expansion.
Based in Fujian province, it sold 11.85 GWh of lithium batteries last year, the highest in the world. It also aims to expand into downstream car production and was listed as a “sizeable investor” in a $500 million fundraising for Chinese NEV start-up Byton.
China accounted for more than half of global new energy vehicle ownership last year, and sales rose 141.6 per cent in the first five months of 2018, hitting 328,000 units.
